Realty Watch Has a New Partner

An important new partnership with the Vancouver Police Department and Realty Watch was recently forged. The VPD is currently in the process of adding the Realty Watch fan-out to their official policy and procedures manual.

"This partnership is a significant boost to our Realty Watch efforts and one we hope is to use as an example as we continue to develop relationships with other police departments throughout the Lower Mainland", said Dave Wyatt - president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

Fan Outs - Police requested our assistance 3 times in January to help find missing people - a senior who had wandered from her care home, a patient who had left a hospital psychiatric ward and a senior reported missing from her home. All three were found safe.

In 2008, Realty Watch recieved 16 police requests to help find missing people, including one Amber Alert for an abducted child who was later found unharmed. Most people were successfully located, though five remain missing.

Fan Out Criteria - If there was a fan out for every missing person reported in the Board area, email boxes would overflow on a daily basis. Instead, police limi their fan-out requests to their most urgent cases - those that involve missing or abducted children, or missing seniors and vulnerable adults who have dissappeared in the previous 24 - 48 hours. On rare occasions the police will request a fan-out in life threatening situations that pose an immediate danger to the public.